Editor's Note: I've always thought that one of the most honored distinctions that Jane Fonda received since she went behind enemy lines in Vietnam in 1972 were the cute stickers carried on the back bumpers of people who like war: "We're not fonda Jane". Today we have women like Cathy Garger who were children back then - now in the coterie of legends like Jane Fonda and Joan Baez - just two of the true heroines of the Vietnam war.
Cathy Garger is one of the co-founders of Veterans for 9/11 Truth ...
"It all began with an article written by freelance writer Cathy Garger entitled: It Only Takes One - Vets For 9/11 Truth".
Unlike many writers against U.S. imperialism, Cathy doesn't just write about it - she does it - by organizing groups like V911T and by putting her "feet on the street" - confronting the enemy in the trenches here in the belly of the beast. As is often the case, those who publicly stake out their opposition to the U.S.-led Global Corporate Empire - Cathy's courageous stand for the truth has brought the disapproval of her own family - where it can hurt the most. But those who lose their approbation of family find a vast new family among the anti-imperialist forces here in the not-so-united States. Today we are pleased to name Cathy Garger as our "Featured Activist" on Axis of Logic. - Axis of Logic Editors
18 June 2006, Father's Day
As happens to many activists against war, I was called a friend of Hanoi Jane yesterday. Now normally being called something like that would make this warrior for peace and truth howl and chuckle heartily. Only thing was? The person who called me that was none other than my very own dad.
Talk about a phone conversation suddenly going silent. I was not quite sure what to say. Was my own father trying to insult me? Was he making some sort of joke? Or was he, deep down, indicating he was proud of his eldest daughter for standing up with such bold conviction? I mean, after all, Jane Fonda used to be known throughout the world as being vocally and publicly against the amoral killing massacre called Vietnam. Ms. Fonda is, therefore, as far as I'm concerned, a great American heroine, forever to be placed up on a pedestal, right up there alongside Cindy Sheehan herself.
Brave Jane Fonda and Cindy Sheehan are prime examples of true American patriots who courageously speak up and out in order to expose the lies about things like murders of people who did not do one thing to provoke such death and destruction.
Where these women leave off, more bold Americans need to continue to go into deeper, further truth, still. Because even as courageous as Jane Fonda and Cindy Sheehan have been? These women have only begun to scratch the surface of the vast and sordid horrors of US Military and covert operations history.
Was it possible, I wondered, that by putting me in the same league as Hanoi Jane, Dad was trying to give me some kind of deeply subliminal, left-handed compliment? Upon further reflection, however, of my fathe's long history of ultra- conservative right wing viewpoints and strict adherence to the opinions expressed by FOX TV News anchors? I think not. No, being called a friend of Hanoi Jane's was certainly no compliment if I know my father at all.
So on this Father's Day, I thought that maybe I would reach someone out there who is trusting (the way I used to be) and who believes every piece of horse manure that gets spit out of the federal garden of roses into the AP (which I'm always tempted to re-name ALP, the Associated Lying Press).
Hey. Wait just a prize rose-picking second! If my tax dollars go to fund that garden and it's on federal property, then why can't I go take a stroll and take a whiff of that meticulously-landscaped paradise on Pennsylvania Avenue without having to first encounter muscular men dressed all in black who would positively drool to use me for target practice?
Enough about such trivial injustice and onto today's actual real-life horrors with the feds in power growling at North Korea. It was sometime last year that I heard the US professional war-crafting designers ratcheting up their bellicose lust with some monstrous-sounding number of bombs aimed directly at North Korea. Reportedly, we were all ready and rarin' to go �nukuler� on North Korea.
I remember acknowledging at the time that North Korea's one of the nations that gets brought up on every occasion, like at every State of the Union speech, as being on the US evil-doers' "hit list." But North Korea? Really? While admittedly not a humanitarian haven and not exactly an ally of the United States, what in the world has North Korea ever done to harm anyone I know?
Oh. That�s right. Absolutely nothing! Come to think of it, neither the citizens nor the government of Afghanistan and Iraq did anything to America, either. But yet we're spending $450 Billion to meticulously Uranium-bomb the smithereens out of those people. I guess the US is kind of funny like that. Because really, if you think about it? Over the past fifty years, doesn�t it seem that the continent of Asia really doesn't *count* in Uncle Sam's evil grand scheme of which global peoples are allowed the privilege of getting to live?
I have to admit I tried to put that whole messy topic of bombs and North Korea out of my mind. Each and every time I contemplated the pattern of aggressive, pre-emptive US War-Making Strategy, I thought in terms of Iran first, North Korea next, and Syria squeezed perhaps somewhere in between. I tried to tell myself, Nah...maybe just once my source has got it all wrong! So for a year I've been trying desperately to reason with the part of one's brain that works harder than hell to live in blissful ignorance and denial about any more unprovoked, pre-emptive wars.
Oops. Today's news gem about long-range missiles aimed at the US "Homeland" tells us, yes indeed, that it's time to climb out from under the covers and start playing closer attention! Now, after today's news? It even seems quite possible that North Korea may indeed come *before* Iran!
Suddenly it is crystal clear to all who are watching carefully that the US grand mastermind plotters have decided it's high time to officially, formally unveil a new enemy (or, rather a resurrected one) upon the Un-knowing, brainwashed Americans in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave! According to this AP article, -- it is quite apparent that the busy little fingers of US intelligence spin writers have been busily wearing down their pencil points of late to tell White House spokesman Tony Snow exactly how to spin this yarn!
While the "official story" with Iran is that we're using enriched uranium as *the* issue over which to rattle our military sabers? With North Korea it's apparently going to be long-range missiles able to reach the US "Homeland." So for those who were wondering what was going on at the administration's home away from home in Camp David, (besides Condi and you-know-who, playing footsies under the kitchen table of the cozy Maryland retreat) it seems that the war plans were shuffled around quite recently. North Korea is apparently trumping Iran in terms of which lucky victim the US will strategically wage war upon next!
Wait. No, this is a tad too obvious. We're supposed to think that we�re gearing up to bomb the daylights out of North Korea. So that makes those of us who study these mind games on America's psyche convinced that it�s got to be something else since they never do exactly what they tell us they're going to do! Hmmm� let�s think back for a bit to their usual Modus Operandi. Just how did they get us into war upon Afghanistan? That�s right! They waged a phony attack on America on September 11 in order to justify going into war in order to look for the guy in the cave who the FBI doesn't even want in conjunction with those attacks!
Don�t believe that some members of the US federal government planned and carried the attacks of September 11? I swear I�m not making this up! Just read what former chief economist under George W. Bush, Morgan Reynolds, has to say.
So, National Rule Number One when planning false flag operations in order to wage large scale attacks that reap tremendously successful, lucrative wars with high genocidal value against innocent people? Always find a way to first get Earl and Shirley Citizen plum scared out of their gourds by telling them that they soon may be under attack at the hands of some horrible, malevolent enemy at any given moment. If the attacks work? That means that the citizens will be shaking in their boots sufficiently in order to allow the US Military to wage a pre-emptive war against the perpetrators that were fingered for the blame for the attacks.
It's always most helpful, too, if the enemy looks nothing like anyone who lives in the mid-west or central United States. Darker colored skin hues work marvelously with the goal of effective boogie-man fabrication! Apparently, the psychological war-making text books after the 1950's must certainly state in False Flag Terror 101 instructions that US enemies can never be fair nor freckled. Nor can they have dimples, red nor blonde hair, and certainly no blue or green eyes. Nope! It's just not as believable when the evil-doing enemy we�re supposed to hate and fear looks just like our ultra white bread neighbors Tom, Dick, Harry, and George.
Come to think of it, that's probably why thirty-five percent of Americans still support the pit barbecue-eating guy-next-door in DC! Think about this for a second. When the actual Number One National Domestic Terrorist looks like your grinning flannel-shirted neighbor whacking down weeds down home on the ranch? You know that the enemies you select to manufacture had better look a whole lot different than society's upper crust, pampered leaders who live and work right inside the nation's capital!
Heads up, Kansas! Watch out Dorothy and Toto, for a missile's coming your way as Uncle Sam gets ready to send you his own special brand of love! Don't mind the fresh gray paint they've used to cover over the red, white, and blue on the side of the bomb. Word has it they got some cryptologist-turned-artiste geek from Fort Meade to do some nifty Korean-looking lettering on the side.
Wow, sure seems like Washington's psychological fear-making machine's getting all ready and geared up for another attack on the Homeland! Or is this all just a warning of an imminent call to arms? Shall we take seriously official spokesperson Snow as he sums up the obviously stated US strategy quite nicely:
"If they go ahead with a test, then we will have to respond properly and appropriately at the time," Snow told CNN's "Late Edition." Asked if he could explain what that meant, Snow replied, "No."
So which will it be, boys and girls? Will there be a test missile fired on America's heartland (and "North Korea" will be reported to have committed the dirty deed, no doubt)? Or, will they play it so that the continuation of the threat of North Korea's long-range missile testing program alone will be the Cause Celebre for a US pre-emptive nuclear-bombing attack upon that nation?
Decisions, decisions. Two ways to go with this. Americans are either going to experience a fresh round of homegrown synthetic terror on our own soil, or we will attack yet another nation as just one in a long string of innocent countries that has done nothing whatsoever to the US to deserve such an onslaught. Either way, once again, the United States can be predictably counted upon to significantly make our customary contribution to world environmental health by increasing radiation levels in the earth's atmosphere.
Oh that's right. Happy Father's Day. You see, Dad, it's like this. The United States government has this nasty habit of always making up some phony reasons to get us into every war that we fight. I realize that what I've told you may be painful, but what other choice did I have? After all, wasn't it always you who threatened to wash my mouth out with soap (and, on at least on one occasion, followed through) when you found me telling a lie?
So dear Dad, I forgive you even if you did call me Hanoi Jane's friend (because you did not mean it as a compliment). And I know it's Fathers' Day and all, but you always wanted me to tell the truth so I did just that. So, in complete and total honesty? Our government actually does tell lies - great big, serious ones. And they actually kill lots of innocent people, too. Honest.
But even though our head honchos have been caught in tall tales that would make Pinocchio appear nose-less in comparison? Still, quite like garlic and vampires, they still won't let me get near the Capitol, the White House, nor the Pentagon with even as much as a small sliver of soap. Can�t really say I blame them, because with the lies they've told in Congress alone? We'd need a tractor trailer full of soap bars to begin to wash their filthy, dirty mouths clean.
So until we get to see one another again, here's a great big hug and a two-fingered "Peace" sign going out to you and to all of you other fathers out there, as well. And just to let you know, Dad? Jane and I both send you all our love.
http://www.mytown.ca/garger/
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